NEET-UG 2024| Supreme Court Seeks IIT-Delhi Expert Opinion On Correct Answer Of 'Ambiguous' Question

The Supreme Court today (July 22) directed the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi to form a three-member expert committee to give their opinion regarding the correct answer to an MCQ question of NEET-UG 2024, for which the National Testing Agency awarded marks for two options.

The Court passed the direction after hearing some petitioners who challenged the decision of the National Testing Authority (NTA) to treat two options as the correct answers to the question. The Court has requested the expert opinion to be placed before it by 12 noon tomorrow.

A bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra observed in the order :

"As indicated, as. per the question as framed,students had to select one option as their answer. In order to resolve the issue as regards the correct answer, we are of the considered view that an expert opinion should be sought from IIT Delhi. We request the Director of IIT Delhi to constitute a team of three experts of the subject concerned. The expert team constituted by the Director is requested to formulate the opinion on the correct option and remit the opinion to the Registrar by 12 noon tomorrow. Registrar General is requested to communicate the order to the IIT Delhi Director so that expeditious steps for the preparation of the opinion can be taken."

The petitioners submitted that as per the instructions issued by the NTA, the students had to follow the latest edition of the NCERT text book. According to the petitioner, option 4 is the correct answer for Question No. 19 in Test Booklet Code S3. As per the old NCERT syllabus, option 2 is the correct option.

The petitioner, who scored 711 marks in the exam, said that she chose to leave the question unanswered because of the ambiguity, so as to avoid negative marking. She contended that the NTA's decision to award marks to students who selected option 2 is contrary to the NTA's own instruction that the latest NCERT version has to be followed. She prayed for either deleting the question or to withdraw the grace marks awarded to students who opted the 2nd option.

It may be noted that 44 out of 61 students who got 720/720 marks are the beneficiaries of the grace mark awarded for this question.

During the hearing, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud observed that there was some force in the argument of the petitioner.

"This is a powerful argument. The instructions are that go by the latest NCERT edition. Option 4 is the correct answer as per the latest NCERT edition. Then those who answered option 2 cannot be given full marks. There, I think they may have a point, "CJI said.

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta informed the bench that 4,20,774 candidates attempted option 2(old NCERT edition answer) and 9,28,379 candidates attempted option 4. SG said that the NTA took the decision to award marks for option 2 after receiving several representations from students who used the old text books of their siblings to prepare for the exam.

The bench also expressed concern about retracting the marks awarded to over 4.20 lakh candidates. 

The bench will continue the hearing tomorrow. Live updates from the hearing can be tracked here.

Case Details: VANSHIKA YADAV Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. W.P.(C) No. 335/2024 And Other Connected Matters